An international group of environmentalists today announced efforts to lobby multinational companies involved in logging, including Malaysia's Rimbunan Hijau, to be more 'responsible' in their operations.

"We will campaign in different countries and target companies that convert land to plantations and for logging purposes that have a negative impact on the environment and indigenous people," said Papua New Guinean Adelbert Gangai at the end of a three-day conference in Kuala Lumpur.

According to Gangai, those companies include Rimbunan Hijau, a major Malaysian timber company owned by Sarawakian timber and media tycoon Tiong Hiew King.

Tiong owns the Chinese-language Sin Chew Jit Poh and a number of newspapers in Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea and Cambodia.

"Rimbunan Hijau has 50 subsidiaries and they are in places like Russia, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands," Gangai told reporters during a press conference.

Over the past decade, environmentalists have criticised Rimbunan Hijau for its logging activities in Sarawak and overseas.

Gangai added that logging and development also affected the ecology of these countries and blamed the World Trade Organisation and the Asian Development Bank for funding such programmes.

The conference entitled 'The Ring of Fire' included delegates from Australia, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Malaysia, Chile, the United States. It was organised by Pacific Environment, a non-governmental organisation from the US.

Underhanded tactics

Harriet Swift, an Australian environmentalist, added that the companies would be told not to use underhanded tactics in timber production.